What’s the best part of the long, cold January in Chicago? Urban Prairie Winter’s Night! Join everyone at the home of Laura Lambert and Conrad Gilliam, 5490 South Shore Drive, Chicago. Limited street parking is available on South Shore as well as a large pay lot at 55th & South Shore (just kitty corner from the event location).

For those of you new to the school, Winter’s Night is an annual adults only casual event. Unlike the last few years, this year’s evening will be a BYOB, potluck dinner. Winter’s Night has always been a great opportunity to mingle and get to know current and prospective Urban Prairie families. Feel free to invite friends or family who may be interested in learning more about our community in an informal setting. Please sign up for a dish at http://www.perfectpotluck. com/meals.php?t=SCZK2876.

Enjoy an appetizer and glass of wine while you spend a little time recharging after a long day and catching up with fellow parents.

Development Update

As Urban Prairie continues to grow, a key financial component to our school’s financial health is achieving our Development objectives. Administration and Development Committee volunteers will briefly review our Annual Fund as well as fundraisers such as the Spring Gala and share the many ways we can continue to grow our community and donor base.

What is happening in your child’s classroom? Come find out!

Spend some time with your child’s class teacher and fellow parents to learn about on-going activities in the classroom.

Adolescence is a time of rapid change and many challenges as young people transition from childhood to adulthood. It can seem like teens have one foot in childhood and one in adulthood as they navigate the changes in their bodies and minds. We at UPWS welcome you to join us for a study as we prepare for this new phase of development that lies ahead.

We will be working with Betty Staley’s book Between Form and Freedom: A Practical Guide to the Teenage Years (this can be purchase on Amazon.com). Betty Staley has been a Waldorf teacher for over thirty years and is a founding member of the Sacramento Waldorf High School. In addition to this book which can be purchased on Amazon, we will use other articles and resource materials.

The study will take place February 8, March 8 and April 5 between 10:00-11:30am at UPWS.

This study is open to all who would like to join, please find the link to RSVP below. Come prepared to discuss the first chapter of Between Form and Freedom: A Practical Guide to the Teenage Years, bring any and all questions you have!

As the parent body continues to grow, we want to make sure events are offered at convenient times so that many can attend. Please take a few minutes to let us know your general availability, so that going forward we can plan events around the majority’s schedule. You can access the survey here

Did you know you can donate to UPWS when you shop on line with Amazon

Set up Urban Prairie as your charity of choice when shopping on Amazon. Visit http://smile.amazon.com and enter Urban Prairie as the name of your charity at which point you can begin shopping.

Please remember, if you want Amazon to donate to Urban Prairie each time you shop on line, you need to start each shopping session at the URL http://smile.amazon.com. You can typesmile.amazon.com into your browser’s address bar or bookmark it to make it easy to return to AmazonSmile. When you start at smile.amazon.com Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to the charity of your choice.

** Please note that when you select Urban Prairie it will list our Federal Tax ID information with a different address then the school address. This is currently being corrected but will not effect the donation.

Take Charge of Education®

Target wants to help Urban Prairie! If you have a Target Red Card, designate Urban Prairie Waldorf School as your school. Target will donate up to 1% of your REDcard purchases at Target stores in the U.S and at Target.com. They send the school a check each year! Right now, six parents are signed up for this program and have raised over $1000.00. Can we raise that number this year? Applications are available in the office or at your local Target Store’s Customer Service desk.

General Community News (2)

Congratulations to the Navia Family (Rides and Meals appreciated)

Congratulations to the Navia (Leslie & Bernardo) Family as they welcomed a baby girl on December 29th, a beautiful ending to 2013.

Inti, the oldest brother of now four siblings, is in 3rd grade and it would be quite helpful if he could find a ride home in the coming weeks. They live near Division/Greenview and the exact address is:

Dinners are also appreciated. There are no specific food restrictions but are used to low dairy/soy. Leslie and Bernardo are grateful for any help during this busy time.

Below is a link to the Helping Hands site where you can view needs on the calendar. Helping Hands is an online tool that helps us organize and coordinate Meals for members of our community. Just click on the link or cut/paste to your browser:https://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/712584/join

After requesting to join the community, you will be notified with instructions on how to sign up. By signing up, you are simply joining the virtual community and not making an immediate commitment. Once you are part of the community, you can view needs on the calendar and see if you are able to help.

Meals can be dropped off at Urban Prairie. Please let Peggy Lofgren know about the meal and she will make sure that Inti receives your generous package to share with his family. We can refrigerate meals at the school as needed.

It was so wonderful to spend time crafting with parents during the Holiday Fair workshops that we want to continue the fun! We realize that many people have already indicted their time/day preferences for this sort of thing, but we are going to ask City Garden families to join us also, so we’ve put together a poll for everyone. Please follow the link to choose the day of the week that works best for you.